Do you remember the good old days when you were issued one pair of uniform boots of the same exact style as everyone else in your branch of the service? Well, those days are over, at least as far as it goes for the United States Marine Corps. In a recent article written for Military.com, the Marine Corps has, in an effort to continually improve the equipment and clothing of the branch, approved 7 new brands of combat service boots. “”

According to the article, “Marines can now choose from 16 different combat, rugged all-terrain or optional boots. The list of approved styles was released in a service-wide administrative message last week, which was signed by Lt. Gen. David Berger, the head of Marine Corps Combat Development Command.”.

The article, written by journalist Gina Hawkins goes on to give a brief description of the merits of the new approved footwear, as well as a detailed listing of them and their manufacturer.“These are the boots that were added to the list of officially approved footwear:

The Marine Corps first authorized Danner’s Reckoning hot-weather boot last year. Even though it wasn’t formally publicized, word spread quickly when the service started selling the boots in the exchanges, Hamby said.

The last time the list of authorized boots had been formally updated was in March 2016″.
What this means for the civilian military surplus community is that these same boots will at some point in time be made available as surplus. Because, even though the individual soldier will often purchase the footwear of his or her choice directly from the manufacturer, the military will still buy mass quanities of same for research, testing, deployment, etc…

According to the Army Times, the military is rolling out a new set of combat fatigues that we can expect to see appearing on the surplus market very soon. These “Blast Protective Trousers” come equipped to keep the boys safe from shrapnel as a result of IED’s and other detritus driven injury devices. In a recent article it was reported:

The Army is rolling out a new pelvic protector to shield soldiers from painful and potentially life-threatening injuries caused by the debris, dirt and dust kicked up in an improvised explosive device blast. The blast pelvic protector, a lightweight ballistic harness that protects soldiers from underneath, was designed by a team at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center . It is meant to avoid the multiple surgeries it takes to remove the debris that commonly gets lodged in a soldier’s groin area in the event of a blast. Those wounds are not only painful but can lead to deadly infections. The piece is meant to improve on the groin-protecting flap that comes with a body armor kit, which can only protect against a fragmentation explosion from the front, said Kristine Isherwood, a mechanical engineer at NSRDEC and the project’s lead, in a Tuesday phone interview with Army Times. “It’s meant to mitigate not so much a life-threatening situation as a quality of life,” she said. The harness does, however, cover a good portion of the inner thigh, protecting the femoral artery and making it look like a very short set of chaps or a pair of shorts rather than the diaper-like design of some other blast protectors on the market. That design was the key to the whole project, said lead designer Cara Tuttle, because they knew if it looked too ridiculous, soldiers wouldn’t wear it. “The shape of the design came about due to considering soldier acceptability. If something isn’t designed with this sort of ‘cool’ factor, then soldiers are less likely to wear it,” she said. “The factor that it looks like a harness and not a diaper, for instance, helps make it more acceptable to soldiers to wear.” The team decided early on that it should be worn outside the uniform, rather than as an undergarment or built into uniform pants, for several reasons. “One clear thing is hygiene issues,” Isherwood said. “It’s easier to have a separate piece where the guys can launder their trousers separate from this protective equipment. And you can visually confirm that yes, they’re wearing it, they didn’t forget it over at the laundry.”

The good news is that it is detachable and therefore doesn’t necessitate the purchase of one per pair of trousers as some security devices may. We look forward to seeing these on the shelves very soon.

After a five month evaluation period that wrapped up just before Christmas, the USMC is assessing feedback from the 400 odd Hawaii based “boots on the ground” Marines who put the newly designed footwear to the test. Reports say that at this point no company has been specifically eliminated from the original evaluation period, and it is possible that at least two more boot makers will be allowed to take part in the testing. While there were supposed to be four combat boot prototypes made available form different bootmakers, sources say that only two: Rocky Boots™ and Belleville Boots™ were prepared with enough boots for the deployment test period. [1] So what you might ask, does this mean for you the consumer of the finest quality of military surplus tents and equipment? Well, specifically it comes down to things. Considering the fact that military contracts are designed to provide for so many units to be produced for so many dollars, it is inherent that there will be extras left over. These extras will then be provided to you, the citizen consumer, as an auction item for surplus, and this is what you can expect to obtain from this process.

Quality. These boots are being put through the most rigorous of tests by the toughest men and women on the planet. The United States Marine Corps is quite arguably the roughest knuckled fighting force that has ever been assembled and as such the equipment that they use has to be tough too. If you buy their surplus, you are getting military surplus equipment that can take nearly anything tat you can dish out to it.

Consistency. How many times have you bought the same item only to have it fit differently and not be as expected? The good news about military surplus is that it is built to very specific guidelines and as such the manufacturing is going to be the same every single time. It would be rejected by quality control otherwise.

Affordability. Let’s face it folks, the U.S. Military isn’t in the profit business. They are in this to wage war and win those wars. The selling offof military surplus equipment items is done strictly to try to get some of the loss back. The advantage goes to you the citizen consumer.